1. Throwback Thursday: Choose a photo from a previous June and write!
I decided to step back in time with this week’s prompts and take a peek at whatever I was blogging about in a previous June. I made the mistake of going back to 2010 and every single blog post gave me that embarrassed feeling and reminded me that I have not finished removing embarrassing posts from my site. Your time to screenshot me joking about being a crackwhore to use against me in a viral attempt to cancel me from the internet is limited.
I zipped up to 2015 instead and boy that really was a year of better content for me. I was sharing fun recipes, taking my family on pretty excursions, navigating sticky situations, and altogether enjoying life as a mom of three kids under the age of 12.
I did write about Kainoa’s struggle with school and man, I guess I never realized how much that has stayed the same for him. At the time he was in first grade and would make comments about how he’d rather die than go to school. I felt for him because I don’t think his teacher was friendly at all and she was particularly tough on him. He can be challenging, but I felt the things she was hypersensitive to were minor. She was actually going to send him to the Principal’s office at one point because he had received three timeouts in one day. The timeouts were for offenses like, hitting a friend with a backpack who was also hitting him, getting a drink of water without permission, and talking too much in class. These are things that I think a teacher can certainly handle without involving the principal. I still get irritated thinking about that lady, it was no way to begin his educational career at school.
Fast forward to now, he still hates school and he STILL makes comments about how he’d rather die than go. So much so, that his school counselor caught wind of it earlier this year and has called me on two separate occasions to discuss it. I thought this stay home order might help him a bit, but doing school this way has been super challenging for him.
I don’t think it’s going to school that he has such a problem with, I think it’s just plain schoolwork. He doesn’t want anything to do with it no matter how you package it. I’m not sure there’s much I can do for him from that standpoint, but man he’s just got six more years to get through and then he can become a professional gamer.
It’s always fascinating to me that I can look back in time and see that so much has changed in terms of our growth as a family but when it comes down to it we still deal with a lot of the same issues…just repackaged.
Can the next five years please pass a little more slowly than the previous five years? I absolutely cannot fathom being a mom of a 21, 19 and 17-year-old. Make it stop.
John Holton says
Unfortunately, the older you get, the faster time passes (or seems to, anyway). Right now, it’s going warp speed for me. The good news is that when you get there, you’ll be able to handle it.
I have this strange feeling that Kainoa is a genius and school just bores him to death. You’re a good Mom, hang in there…
Abby says
It does totally fly. When I started blogging, I had two kids in elementary school and a toddler at home. Wasn’t that just about 5 years ago??
Sorry Kainoa had such a bad start to school life. First grade should be fun. I’ve known some teachers who are burnt out and should’ve retired years ago.
Kim says
John’s right – the older you get, the faster the time passes. Especially once your first is out of high school!
I feel for Kainoa, too. I had a teacher who absolutely hated me (4th grade), and she had me sent to the Principal’s office every Friday that rolled around for a paddling. My infractions were pretty minor, as well. It got so bad I was getting sick to my stomach every Friday like clockwork, and having to either stay home from school or be picked up from school because I’d gotten sick as soon as I’d gotten there. My Mom almost got that teacher fired once she found out what was happening to me every week.
Teachers these days are even less tolerant of what I’d consider typical child behavior.
Patty says
Your post brought back so very much of our son’s challenges in school. I could easily substitute his name in place of Kainoa’s and the behaviors and issues would be the same.
Along the way, my son had a teacher who was understanding and would go that extra mile. And there were those who just brushed him off into the dreaded ADHD pile of educational indifference. We had to deal with hearing “well, he attended a Montessori school before you moved here, kids from these schools ALWAYS have problems!”.
Hey, I’m a realist. Kids don’t all love school but the structure of the curriculum should be designed to reach those children with issues and help them find their niche, not marginalize their potential.
And, what John said? About Kainoa being a genius? Trust me, our son, is just that. It took time, leveling off by the time he hit 30, he still easily gets unraveled but, he’s brilliant. And sometimes…still his own worst enemy.
Hang in there, Kat!